Biprorshee Das
Advertising

White Canvas to handle creative duties of digital publisher EC Media

The account was won after a multi agency pitch; White Canvas is handling the launch of EC Media's e-reader, Wink

e-book enthusiasts lapped up Amazon Kindle, a software and hardware platform to display e-books and digital media. e-book readers in India had more reasons to celebrate with the launch of Wink, an indigenous product designed for the same purpose, last month.

White Canvas has been assigned the creative mandate of EC Media, the Bengaluru based digital publishing company behind Wink. The agency will design the communication strategy of the product going forward.

White Canvas to handle creative duties of digital publisher EC Media
The business was won following a multi agency pitch during which about six agencies were evaluated.

Commenting on the win, Deepak Nair, managing partner, White Canvas, tells afaqs!, "For a business like this, it is very important to get into the skin of the product. It was our understanding of the e-reader market, the product and the consumer, and the strategic insights we offered that helped us win the business.

"Also the fact that we are a young agency and the brand, too, is new and young further helps the synergy."

Wink was launched last month as a multi-function e-book reader that supports 15 languages and also offers more than 200,000 book titles.

Consumers are offered a one-stop e-store to access reading content at www.thewinkstore.com, which offers e-books, journals, newspapers and magazines. The product is also designed for other functions such as playing music, storing pictures and checking e-mails, among others.

White Canvas to handle creative duties of digital publisher EC Media
Currently, two variants of the product are available, priced at Rs 11,490 and Rs 15,990 respectively. More variants are in the offing.

Talking to afaqs!, Sirisha Voruganti, vice-president, operations, EC Media, says, "We wanted a small organisation that is agile and could react quickly to the market. White Canvas' understanding of the product and the market helped us further in making the choice."

The communication strategy is currently focused on direct marketing exercises around the retail environment. Going forward, as more variants are launched, ATL (above the line) activities are also on the cards.

Wink is currently available through retail outlets such as Croma, Crossword and other multi-brand outlets.

"The campaign ahead will focus on improving the brand presence in retail stores and increasing penetration. There shall be a lot of in-store branding," says Voruganti.

While she refused to divulge the ad-spends earmarked for the exercise, Voruganti stressed that it shall be substantial.

According to both Nair and Voruganti, it is an exciting market to be in, where sale of e-books is catching up with the sale of books and going forward, demand is only seen to be increasing.

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